Customer Reviews

Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan

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It is very interesting for us Japanese to read a this kind of book written by a foreign author. But there is one thing to be disappointed that Mr. Leupp didn't treat before Edo period so minutely, because male homosexuality in Japan was much more popular and prosper in pre-Edo period both in samurai society and in the aristocracy, the priesthood also than in Edo period, as many Japanese recognize. From Insei period on, especially in late-Kamakura, Muromachi to Momoyama period, male-male love was highly estimated and enthusiastically celebbrated, and almost of all Shogun i.e. supreme commanders, Daimyo i.e. war lords et Tenno i.e. emperors had their male lovers. Some of famous Daimyo and Tenno never married nor had any heterosexual relationship , for they thought to abstain from sex with women is a brave , manly and pious behavior. There 're so many documents & literal texts e. g. Anthology of paiderastia just like the Greek Musa paidike by Straton. Even quasi-marriage ceremony between men NENKEI was usually performed, and several famous Shogun & Daimyo were assasinated out of male-love jealousy or homoerotical troubles. On the other hand, Edo period was nothing but a slow and long decline process of male homosexuality which was vulgalized & commercialized. Yet, even in Meiji period , pederasty was more popular than heterosexuality among students. And Ko-ha i.e. manly students engaged in pederasty , on the contrary Nan-pa i.e. soft students loved women, but the latter was despised as effeminate.Anyhow some readers may misunderstand as if in Japan male homosexuality became most vigorous in Tokugawa period. However I would like to point out that such a conception is not correct . I want to comment more, but night's candles are burnt out, so I mugt go to bed now. Anyway after ancient Greek , only Japanese could have enhanced male homosexuality to highly ethical valued SHUDO i.e. the way of male love. And I hope many people study Japanese culture, history & literature more.

Not many scholarly works read well, but this one does. Even if you are not a student of Japanese history and culture, "Male Colors" is a pleasure. Yes, there are sections with a lot of Japanese names (particularly when the author cites a string of sources), but by and large, this work is very accessable to us mere mortals who are interested in the history of same-sex love.

Initially, as the author describes, same-sex love in Japan was something practiced by elite groups: first the Zen Buddhist monks who are believed to have imported the practice from China (a curious notion because this also carries the connotation that homosexuality came from "some place else") and then the samuri elite. While factors such as the lack of eligible women may have contributed to the general acceptance of bisexuality, many, if not most, of the practicers of nanshoku had deep emotional ties to their partners. But as urban life began to grow, nanshoku was popularized through a combination of the kabuki theater and the commercial sex enterprises that cropped up.

Also interesting were all the examples of art depicting nanshoku, some of it quite ribald and most of it graphic. But that just lends more weight to the notion that there was no stigma attached to boy love during this period in Japan, at least not a universal stigma; it was quite nearly universally tolerated and any effort to control nanshoku usually was to control violent fights over popular boy prostitutes rather than a governmental decree against homosexual sex.

The book is heavy on male sexuality with little mention of lesbianism, but that's hardly a surprise considering most cultures tend to be strongly patriarchal and it is the men who record history. And as usual, it appears that it was through contact with the West, particularly with Christian missionaries, that the practice of nanshoku was eventually shunned into the crepuscular corners of Japanese culture. More evidence that if there is harm caused by same-sex activity, the harm is caused by a prudish societal mentality orignating in a rigid Judeo-Christian ethic that thrives on domination and guilt.

The history of Japanese homosexuality is full of references to males dressing up as girls and serving powerful men in submissive relationships. Evidently bisexuality was the prevalent norm for Japanese MEN as almost every shogan has several 'beautiful boys' in addition to the women they kept. Many were exclusively devoted to beautiful young men---almost always dressed and acting like girls. This theme practically defines homosexuality in ancient Japan...the Japanese word for homosexuality was NANSHOKU which is loosely translates to english as "Male Colors". Nanshuko was so consistent in it's expression for so many years that it almost qualifies as a artistic expression or preference.

"Bishounen means not only cute, harmonic, lovely boy features but refers to the open feminity of a boy, and the way he can be associated to feminine beauty and delicacy. It involves the heavenly face whose beauty is deeply androgynous though boyish enough to remind us of his male gender, the curvy hips, legs and butt the standard bishounen soprts and make him attractive to both sexes, the evident delicacy of manners and personality and, most important of all, the homosexual tendencies the boy shows by liking other, more masculine males."

It is amazing that this expression of homosexual desire would exist so long in Japanese history even into a modern Japanese anime genre called "Yaoi"

This book was superb in every way, and just goes to prove that the concept of homophobia was a product of Judeo-Christian morals. Before the opening of Japan in 1854, Japan was a society which tolerated all forms of pleasure, a society so completely removed and different from the prudish West. Leupp, in a work which he calls "the first study of Japanese homosexuality in the English language," documents every one of his points painstakingly, and it is evident that this book was many years in the making. With Leupp's study, the reader is taken into the fascinating and secret world of closed Japan, insular from the rest of the world, and is taken into the pleasure districts of Edo and other Tokugawa cities, and left there to gawk and marvel at everything. This study is extremely important, and here's hoping that more studies like this come along!

This is an extraordinary book. The author begins telling the reader that even in today's Japanese studies circle there is still bias against those who research such things as this book. With that in mind, I delved into this fascinating book. Before going into the book's contents I want to say that Dr. Leupp writes in a style that is very easy to read while conveying a great deal of information. Before I started reading this book I was worried that he was going to write in such an academic way that it would leave the subject matter quite sterile. That definately is not the case. The author begins the book at first with an explanation of the long hitorical trends of homosexuality that can be found in the histories of China and Korea and he places these histories of homosexul cultures beside those of Greece and other European countries. He then delves into the homosexual tradition of early Japan mainly focusing on the Imperial Court, Buddhist and Shinto monks and priests, and finally Samurai. After setting this precedent, he goes into detail of Tokugawa homosexuality, mainly focusing on Kabuki actors and Prostitutes. He uses examples from both historical records and literature. This is a great book that should be read by those who are interested in not only homosexual history, but those who are looking for a fuller understanding of Japanese hitory.

I bought this book last year when I was doing a study on the construction of modern Japan, and I saw this book and thought it looked interesting. I didn't end up reading it until a few months ago, but once I started it I didn't put it down. This is a really interesting and accesible book. Although it is filled with lots of information, it is well written so that it flows along like a novel. It is easy and interesting to read, without being clogged down with lots of scientific and research terms. Although the topic of Japanese homosexuality isn't one that I have studied too intensly, I found this novel to be very interesting and I think it gives an excellent over-view to the subject.

Gary Leupp's research was clearly thorough, and his end-result benefitted greatly from it. Although I already knew of both the monastic and samurai traditions of same-sex pairings, to see the extent to which this permeated Tokugawa society was fascinating. It also gave strong argument to the constructivist theory of homosexuality, which, when considered alongside biological factors, makes for a coherent picture of sexuality in society. It's clear from the work that more research can and should be done: same-sex pairings among women, and the shift from the Tokugawa to the Modern era in Japan and the resulting changes in sexuality would make for excellent books as well. One curious thing is the appendix of glossed terms in Japanese, Chinese and Korean. I for one would have appreciated more than a vocabulary list; if the notes in the text had contained the original language versions of his text, I'd have been happier.